Invoking Sir Edward Grey and the Anglo-Japanese Treaty to justify the declaration of war allowed Kato to sideline the more conservative figures in the Japanese establishment around genro Yamagata. Looked on in this light, the 21 Points were a further effort by Kato to maintain the respectability of Japanese foreign policy in Western eyes by containing the even more radical, racialized visions of confrontation that were circulating within the imperial military establishment.
